Birds

I’m not a bird photographer. I don’t have the requisite long lens to do most birds justice. But I was excited to see these three ibises flying at the Robinson Preserve and thought I’d try following them with my too-short lens. Hah! They’re in focus! The bridge in the background is the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, which connects St. Pete (no one calls it St. Petersburg) to points south. It is a very long bridge—more than four miles end to end—giving travellers plenty of time to contemplate what would happen if another ship crashed into it.

If you’re a big fan (as I am) of the works of George Bernard Shaw, you may be disappointed in this post. This is what birders call a GBH: Great Blue Heron. This one was trolling the shallows for fish in South Lido Park.

Update On February 6, on the post titled Sleeping Turtles Preserve North, with Bog Lily, I made a confession that I’m now (February 14) copying here. “I have a strange confession to make concerning the blog post called GBH in SLP. On that post I intimated (because for some reason I have thought of George Bernard Shaw whenever I heard “GBH”) that “GBH” was how people referred to George Bernard Shaw. It isn’t! Obviously (even to me, now), George Bernard Shaw is “GBS”! I’m sorry if I confused any of you in my own confusion. I have no idea how that erroneous thought got lodged in my head. Thank my dear husband for setting me straight.” Arghhh.

I’ve mentioned before that the Great Blue Herons here let you get close to them, closer than we can get to them in Ohio. Many egrets, like these two, let you get close, also. People like to fish on this part of the South Lido Park beach, and the egrets like to hang around to see if they can beat the people to the catch . . . What I really love is the feet.

Like this:

Another sign that fall is approaching is the pretend migration of this area’s Canada geese. Their raucous honking and v-shaped flight patterns are all for show (or something). They never leave but spend the winters here.

Usually, when the ibises come to town, I only see them from a moving car and without my camera. Saturday they were walking around right in front of me as I made my way to farmers market, camera around my neck. What a treat. I was able to get pretty close to them; they only scattered when a loud truck approached.